Being Gay is Not a Choice. Being a Hateful Person Is and Religion is No Longer a Valid Excuse

Humanity needs to grow up and realize the world is the way it is, no matter how hard we believe, pray, or want it to be something else. Being gay is not a choice and straight people are not going to stop having gay babies any time soon. If you honestly think being gay is a choice then you are ignorant or homophobic or both, it’s that plain and simple. Do people honestly think that people would choose to be gay when they have to put up with the kind of hate and physical abuse that the LGBT community, as a whole, faces every day? Do not underestimate the dangers and difficulties that people in the LGBT community face. There are some people in the LGBT community that do not have to deal with any of this abuse, but that is a tiny percent. Why do so many people still believe that being gay is a choice and what can we do to end this ignorance and hate? The way we handle this diseased way of viewing our fellow Earthlings is in our hands. Are we going to drop the ball again, like we have been doing our entire existence, or can we evolve? Will we learn how to embrace our brothers and sisters of Earth, no matter their sexual orientation, and work to solve a problem that our species has failed thus far?

Let’s get one thing clear: regardless of our race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else that can be viewed as a difference between us, we are still one species. We are human beings (homo sapiens is the technical term ironically); we are brothers and sisters that share the same planet we all call home. There appears to be no other place, at least not in the near future, that we can relocate to so we need to learn how to work together and coexist if we want to build a better future for the generations to come. Therefore, we need to grow up and act like the mature species so many us of claim to be. We are simply not there yet, and we will never make that leap until we discard the current irrational fears and beliefs still clung to by a species divided.

I think it is important for people reading this to understand that I am a straight male. This is important for two different reasons. First, it will help people to realize that I am not writing this for self benefit and I have never faced any kind of discrimination for being born with the sexual orientation that, I repeat, I was born with. I have never faced verbal, physical, emotional or any other kind of real threat to my life based on my sexual orientation. My second reason is a clarification so people can understand that I myself am somewhat ignorant when it comes to truly understanding the difficulties that people who are born gay have to face every day. I have many personal friends who are gay and some of them have confided in me, on multiple occasions, about personal struggles that they have had to face specifically due to the simple fact that they were born different.

The fear and hate, that some people have for our fellow Earthlings, is one that fills me with tremendous shame, as a member of the same species. These overpowering emotions are completely irrational. There is no valid reason for this homophobia and until we all acknowledge the fact that this particular fear and hate is nothing more than a plague and sickness of the mind forward progress will be stymied. A sickness which we have the power to eliminate from this world and until that day comes, humanity as a whole will continue to suffer. People who are born gay do not have some hidden agenda. “The gay agenda” is a made up phrase created by bigots to try and get others to believe in the irrational fears that their own minds have created based on their own irrational insecurities as a human being. There is only one agenda that truly matters and that is “What will make humanity better?” In order to get there we need to start being honest with ourselves about what fears are rational and what fears are irrational.

The main excuse (and I say excuse because it’s not a valid reason) that people use to hide behind on this issue is religion. Yes, according to the bible and the qur’an homosexuality is a sin. These books also believe that human beings born with a vagina are not equal and should be completely obedient to human beings that were born with a penis (people have no control over what sexual genitalia they are born with, the same exact way that people have no control over what sexual orientation they are born with). Not to mention the fact that each of these books believe mythological creatures are real (the bible has talking snakes, talking donkeys and it mentions unicorns, while the qur’an believes that Muhammad rode a flying horse, with a humanoid face and a tail made of peacock feathers up to a supernatural world that there is zero physical evidence for).

Using a book made of fairy tales to explain why you are treating others in a horrendously hateful way is terrible. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is a common phrase used by religious folks. This is still a hateful way of looking at the issue, because people are still saying that being born gay makes someone more evil that someone who is born straight. This is simply not true (over 1500 different species in the animal kingdom, which we are a member, exhibit homosexual behaviors). Yes, the god of the bible and the god of the qur’an view it as evil, so what does that tell you about the “god’s” and their creations?? Aren’t we supposedly made in “god’s image?” Are these “gods” that ignorant about how the real world works or do they just prefer hate over love? If there really is a higher power that favors love over hate, then it has to be extremely disappointed in our species for how we have treated our brothers and sisters of Earth in the past and currently.

The amount of basic human rights that are violated and denied, every single day, to members of the LGBT community is completely shameful. Where is the marriage equality? Only 19 out of 50 states have marriage equality in America. Then there are countries like Uganda (where American christian missionaries have preached their hateful propaganda) and Russia (here is a video showing the kind of hate that irrational fears have created) that have extremely hateful laws that violate the basic human rights of people based on the sexual orientation that they are born with. These are just a few of the examples of the hate and physical abuse that members of the LGBT community face.

The worst crime though, when it comes to this matter, is committed by those individuals around the world who know it is wrong to hate someone based on their sexual orientation, but say or do nothing. The silence of these individuals, which is a large if not majority of people, is what is making it possible for this kind of irrational hate to exist in our world. I say “our world” because Earth and how we choose to live on it is up to us. How much more hate and abuse do our brothers and sisters have to face before we say, “enough is enough, we will no longer tolerate this kind of behavior or hate.” It can be tough to stand up to others, whether it is people we do not know or our own family, but if humanity wants to live in a world that chooses love over hate, it has to be done. Is our fear of standing up for love and equality too great? Will we choose to continue to be silent even though we know the kind of hell that we are allowing our fellow Earthlings to have to face each and every single day? The power is in our hands and the choice is up to us. What kind of tomorrow are we going to build today?